Celtic can go to the top of Scottish Premiership for the first time since March 2019 this afternoon with a win over Livingston at Celtic Park. Having lost 1-0 in West Lothian in September Ange Postecoglou will know what to expect from today’s visitors at a sold-out Celtic Park.
The first half hour of today’s match will be somewhat strange with various fans groups planning a 30 minute silent protest against the incredibly insensitive (rumoured) decision to recruit Bernard Higgins. You can read about that below.
READ THIS…Silent Protest – Celtic face fan backlash with appointment of repressive figure
This own goal at least has not been confirmed. If it is true it is such a slap in the face to the entire Celtic Support, not just the younger fans in the North Curve and up in the Jock Stein top corner with The Bhoys. Yesterday John Paul Taylor was coming in for some personal stick from angry supporters and this should not happen. Yes, let the Celtic SLO know about your views on this matter but ask him to direct this to the Board and anyone else making the decisions rather than giving JPT personal stick.
Again Celtic have NOT confirmed this appointment and if they are going to do it then they are going to face another winter of discontent that even an increasingly impressive Celtic team under Ange Postecoglou’s guidance will not prevent. Maybe they think they can get away with this appointment because the team is playing well and winning games. They are wrong if that is indeed the case.
It is clear however that Higgins has no place at Paradise.
Then there’s Brian Wilson, the continuity myth selling Celtic Director who slapped each and every one of the Celtic Support in the face with his inaccurate and disgraceful comments in the Guardian this week. His views are incompatible with those of us who know what happened in 2012 and are not prepared to pay to perpetuate a lie to suit the Celtic suits and their Old Firm chums across the city. Wilson really must consider his position.
So those are the two own goals, one confirmed the other apparently in the pipeline – if the Celtic Board think these are not matters of concern for the wider Celtic Support then they are misguided in the extreme. Wilson’s comments are a disgrace, they are untrue and they go along with the big lie that has cast a major shadow over Scottish football and continues to do so. He simply has to go. Time to do the honourable thing, Brian.
This incidentally is the actual position as it was set out in Sunday Herald the weekend before the first ever meet meeting between Celtic and theRangers in early February 2015. This incidentally was organised by myself and funded by Celtic Supporters as Celtic FC did nothing other that refer to the games as the Glasgow Derby rather than the Old Firm. They appear desparate to bring that back too!
If there is anything at all that Brian Wilson identifies as being incorrect or inaccurate in any way on the Statement from Celtic Supporters below then we will be delighted to give him the space on The Celtic Star to correct our errors…
Celtic Football Club was founded in 1887 and played their first match against Rangers Swifts on 28th May 1888.
On 1st February 2015 Celtic will meet the club currently playing out of Ibrox – the traditional home of Rangers Football Club – in the semi-final of the Scottish League Cup. Many Celtic supporters, from all sections of our support, feel it necessary to state our clear position with regard to the current “Rangers” club prior to this match.
Celtic supporters believe there is no track record of matches between Celtic and our semi-final opponents and that the game on 1st February is in fact the first meeting between Celtic and the new Rangers club, which was established in 2012.
The original Rangers Football Club was established in 1872 and was incorporated into a private limited company in 1899 in exactly the same way that Celtic Football Club became the Celtic Football and Athletic Club Ltd two years earlier in 1897.
Upon incorporation into a limited company, the officers of Rangers Football Club signed up to and adopted a set of Memorandum and Articles of Association, which stated clearly that Rangers Football Club and the new limited company had become one single legal entity and were inseparable in law.
For over a century, football authorities in Scotland and Europe accepted that Rangers Football Club and Rangers PLC – as the limited company would eventually become – were one and the same legal person and club. In the past, all Scottish Football authorities accepted and endorsed contracts of employment and other legal documents, which stated that Rangers Football Club and the limited company it had become were one and the same.
In 2012 Rangers Football Club, established in 1872 and subsequently incorporated into a limited company in 1899 was liquidated owing at least £21 Million to the UK tax payer and the club, as defined in the Memorandum and Articles of Rangers PLC and elsewhere, was legally brought an end.
The place in the SPL previously occupied by the liquidated club was taken by Dundee FC as a direct consequence of the space created by the liquidation of Rangers PLC. As every other club finishing below Rangers (1872) in the league moved up one place to fill the gap caused by the liquidation of Rangers PLC, space became available in the bottom tier of the Scottish Football league for another club to be admitted into the Scottish League Football structure at this lower level.
Administrators Duff and Phelps published a document on 5th April 2012 in which they outlined their intention to sell the assets and business as a going concern should a CVA be achieved. After creditors of Rangers Football Club rejected the proposed CVA two months later, the Rangers administrators merely sold the assets as they were unable to sell the business as a going concern.
These assets were sold to a new limited company set up by Charles Green.All of the clubs in Scottish Football – including Rangers PLC (IA) then voted and as a result, Mr Green’s new company was offered admission into the bottom division of the SFL. This offer was accepted by the new company (Sevco Scotland Ltd), which applied for membership of the Scottish Football Association, which had vested in Rangers PLC for many years.
Prior to the grant of this application for transfer, The SFA quite separately granted a unique conditional membership of the SFA to Charles Green’s New Rangers Club whilst maintaining the existing SFA membership vested in Rangers PLC.
Without conditional SFA membership the new Rangers Club could not have competed in the Ramsdens Cup tie against Brechin City on 29th July 2012. As at that date, both the old and new clubs were members of the SFA at one and the same time.
The application for transfer of the SFA membership held by the old club was subsequently granted, and the new club became a full member of the SFA replacing the old club. That is the position that all of the other clubs in Scottish Football agreed to and accepted.
There was no demotion of Rangers 1872 as that club had ceased to function and could no longer exist in any legal, commercial or sporting sense. The old Rangers ceased to be and Charles Green’s “new Rangers” started again at the bottom of the Scottish league system – without either the debt or titles and trophies won on the field of play by the former club.
The application to transfer the SFA membership vested in Rangers (1872) to The Rangers (2012) was approved solely at the discretion of the SFA and represents a specific membership being transferred from one entity to another and from one member to another.
Further, when Rangers 2012 became a member of the Scottish Football League, the original Rangers club were still members of the Scottish Premier League which again clearly points to two separate clubs being in existence.
To recap: following upon the grant of conditional membership of the SFA, Mr Green’s club made separate application for a transfer of the full SFA membership held by the old club and at no time did Rangers 1872 and Rangers 2012 exist with one uninterrupted full membership of the SFA as the new club had quite separately been granted its own distinguished, individual and separate membership.Rangers 2012 were subsequently treated as a new club, participated in the early rounds of the Scottish Cup and were not eligible to play in UEFA competition due to not having been members of the SFA for the mandatory 3 year qualifying period all in terms of Article 12 of the UEFA rules.
As Celtic supporters, we regrettably recognise that our club had an association with Rangers (1872) through the collective descriptive term, The Old Firm. We believe this term is now redundant following the liquidation of Rangers (1872).
On 1st February (2015) Celtic supporters will support our team in the semi-final against a new club, which came into being in 2012. This will be the first ever meeting between the two clubs and the purpose of this statement is to place our position on record so that Celtic supporters can enjoy the occasion for what it is and without playing any part in what we see as the Rangers “club continuation” fiction.*
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